Pho Cafe Vietnamese Hipster Restaurant Silver Lake Los Angeles, CA

Pho Cafe Vietnamese Hipster Restaurant Silver Lake Los Angeles, CA

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we drove up to visit some of Gisa’s friends in the Silver Lake area of LA. While we were out in China, her friends spent a few days at our apt in Brooklyn and talked about some of the places they liked in Williamsburg such as the funky Bagel Store (they loved the French Toast bagels). We proceeded to swap stories about good places to eat in LA and Brooklyn and eventually ended up at Pho Cafe.

I guess being in Silver Lake, I was a little excited to see West Coast hipsters and was happy with the vantage point I got that night at the innermost table of the restaurant. There, you can pretty much get a lengthwise view down the long corridor of tables under the repeating designer lamps of the entire restaurant. But as expected it’s the same shit, different place.

The food however was definitely special. I ordered the #16 Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong (vermicelli rice noodles with egg rolls, charbroiled lemongrass steak, peanuts and fresh herbs). It was similar to Tu Lan’s #17 in San Francisco but I kind of like Tu Lan’s rolls better. Even more remarkable however was a dish straight out of the appetizer section – #6 (Ban H Xeo Chay – Vietnamese crepe with tofu, mushrooms, bean sprouts, mung beans, served with fresh herbs and rice paper wrap).

You basically roll your own using the rice paper wraps and the stuffing which includes the amazing crispy deep fried crepe. Note: it’s a little tricky with the rice paper, so be sure to start rolling the wraps the second the server puts the dish on the table since the rice paper wraps tend to dry and stick to each other quite quickly. Here’s to the West Side! Sorry, no time to check out so many good places in LA – definitely need to spend more than a few days next time!